The majority of the stories were set in the rural town of Smallville during the character's youth, including tales of his toddlerhood.

[3] Comics historian Les Daniels noted that early Superboy stories seemed to celebrate the virtues of life in America's small towns, and that covers in the book made Smallville look like a "dreamworld" where few problems existed.

[4] The supporting cast included Superboy's adoptive parents Jonathan and Martha Kent, his over-inquisitive classmate and neighbor Lana Lang,[5] best friend Pete Ross who was secretly aware of Superboy's true identity as Clark Kent, Smallville Police Chief Parker, and the super-powered canine Krypto.

[8] For much of this period, DC also published Superboy tales in Adventure Comics, which began featuring the Boy of Steel regularly in issue #103 (April 1946).

Crafted by Cary Bates and Cockrum, the feature proved popular and saw such events as the wedding of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel in issue #200 (Feb.

[16] A backup story in issue #236 served as a lead-in to All-New Collectors' Edition #C-55 which featured the wedding of longtime Legion members Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad.

[17] Writer Paul Levitz and artists James Sherman and Joe Staton crafted "Earthwar" a five-issue storyline in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #241–245 (July–Nov.

[22] Issue #50 (Feb. 1984) featured a Legion of Super-Heroes guest appearance with Keith Giffen splitting the story's art duties with Schaffenberger.

[24][25] Briefly, the series also included a "Dial H for Hero" back-up feature which told the story of Christopher King and Victoria Grant, two teenagers who could change into a variety of superheroes based on reader submissions.

The character was then given his own title wherein he became the resident superhero of Hawaii;[30] Kesel and Grummett carried over as the series' first creative team, and also retained Superboy's supporting cast including love interest Tana Moon, unscrupulous agent Rex Leech and his daughter Roxy, and fellow Cadmus creation Dubbilex.

Subsequently, the series was mainly written by Ron Marz and Barbara Kesel; pencillers included Ramon Bernado, Sal Buscema and Georges Jeanty.

The creative team changed again in issue #94, with the new writing team of Jimmy Palmiotti & Dan DiDio and penciller John McCrea; this run saw Kon-El move to an apartment building in the Suicide Slum section of Metropolis, with an entirely new supporting cast and set of street-level villains.

[33] A new Superboy series starring Kon-El debuted with a January 2011 cover date, written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Pier Gallo.

[34] In the intervening time between series, Kon-El had been retconned to be the hybrid clone of Superman and Lex Luthor;[35] Clark Kent's history as the original Superboy had also been restored to the main DC continuity.

Kon-El was seemingly killed in the crossover story "Krypton Returns"; beginning with issue #26 under new writer Marv Wolfman, Jon Lane Kent became the new series protagonist.